He dove towards the crease, and during the play, made slight incidental contact with (I think) Seabrook, but the contact did not change his trajectory or the control he had once he was on the ice.

but boldmatter reminded me of it last night.

my horse is higher (or so I’ve been told)

in the regular season, that is a “no goal” play. This is not the regular season anymore – and bad officiating is apparently now mandatory, progressively worse as the series progress through the rounds.

wwwwhhhhhaaaaaaa? never!

I believe.

apples, oranges

but i’m hard pressed to apply it to what the players “deserve” on the ice physically. I’d rather they get what they deserve based on how they play, and I’m not saying Briere’s always a saint….i’d just rather not say i’m okay with him maybe getting his eye poked out b/c some fans that cheer for him have behavioral issues.

you’re right i did forget that one as well, but was really pissed about it at the time

I actually just sent him two brand new Wheels of Justice. One specifically for when he’s deciding for the Flyers (choices are varying numbers to signal the number of games they can be suspended for) and one specifically for the Hawks (just a big red circle for “No Suspension”.

Captain and To Kneel …. and Hossa

but didn’t do much during the regular season afterward. I don’t know, maybe that’s just what he does.

We’d all been crying throughout games 2, 3, and 4 to break up DDN – though we love them so – and make Lavvy make a decision.

Its really freaking easy, when you have Puckhogger as your top D line, to say "Hmmm… They’ve got Toews, Kane, and Byfuglien on one line. They’ve all been pretty sick, all playoffs long. Put Puckhogger out there with them at all times possible.

Its not so easy to do, when one of them is out there at all times.

Q’s line generator struck oil in Game 5. I say you stay with that, until Lavvy finds an answer. He doesn’t have long to come up with an effective one.

I look forward to Wednesday night with guarded optimism

Let’s Finnish Them – and throw up a big ’ol FU to the Philly crowd on Wednesday night.

The Chalice will be in attendance.

it was a ben eager outline

there are bold moves … and then there are WTF moments.

If it had worked, he’s be a genius (the great excuse for many an idiotic failure in life)

I would hate to have the goalie controversy still hanging over our heads

JVR is a dynamo, a guy who can score, and a future superstar for the American team. Carcillo is like Eager, but kind of worse.

and is so much less of a liability. yeah there’s the “Carcillo brings energy” argument, but its not always good energy….i think JVR really should more respect in this debate. But then again, i just think Carcillo is a poor excuse for a human being.

and the team knows who will be in net. This “controversy” will keep the press busy focusing on something that probably isn’t an issue.

asking his players who they think should sit?

Even better, which lines they’d like to be on??!!

It’s one of the perks of June hockey. And if things go well Wednesday, I doubt we’d take the time to discuss it. And as much as I love watching Pronger get Pronger’d, I can’t do it for 2+ full days. Other topics are needed.

that probably came across wrong. I’m actually just so excited about the possibility of winning the Cup.

Who’s got the Conn?
Things have really evened out and I suppose we will see many votes for different players. It really has been a team effort by the Hawks. Because of this, even if the Hawks win the Cup I actually have a slight concern that the Hawks players split up the vote and someone else could actually take it.

but as I note, depends on whether — or who — delivers big in a deciding game.

 but then I think he forgot about playing in the first 4 games of this series. (i’m semi-joking here)

I don’t know what his problem w/Bolland is…

Sure, his contribution is being overblown by the media, but like I said in my FanPost, the overblown nature of his defensive contribution is more than made up for with timely goal scoring.

Leighton appeared most vulnerable (from the prior series games I saw) at the 5-hole from about 45 degrees out to his right.

Moving post-to-post is always going to give all but the very best fits, but when you have a guy recovering from double mcl injuries, I think it’s even more true. Thus needing to test his physical ability.

was very aggressive coming out of his net to play the puck behind the net. I could see where he could easily screw that up.

the team is losing sight of all ugly ass orange and black players on rebounds; even on Hartnell’s goal when Niemi should’ve had the puck, Hartnell shouldn’t have been able to just skate right at the net for the tip-in. Even if Niemi had the puck, our team should’ve been back to defend him from the Flyers.

We can’t miss those assignments.

was very kind to lose his hat as a show of solidarity with his new linemate.

and drew some penalties, so I don’t feel the need to complain about him. I wouldn’t mind seeing Brouwer up there either, though.

They are so talented up front, with depth that you don’t get a huge drop off in scoring ability from one line to the next.

All three “scoring” lines (and the “checking/pest” line) are capable of shutting a team down, taking the puck from them, breaking out, and finishing at the other end.

It makes the job of the line generator a little bit easier, and its a really, REALLY good problem to have.

but at the expense of the first line. What to do with Kop? That’ll be debated for centuries, or at least as long as he’s on the Hawks. I don’t like seeing him on the 1st line and I don’t think he really improves the play of that Horsa guy. Sure, perhaps Kop plays better with 81, but who wouldn’t? I wonder what the odds are of us actually seeing that 1st line light the lamp this series.

In many respects they’re the same way — 3 lines that don’t really fit the traditional 1st, 2nd, 3rd molds. So they’re dangerous when any of them are on the ice, so it’s good to have good two way players on all three.

I don’t get the Kop hate. I mean, yeah, he’s not Toews or Hossa and that seems to be the standard by which all Hawks wingers are now judged, but he isn’t a liability (I know this because the Hawks were one point from taking the West in the regular season and now they’re one game from winning the Stanley Cup; you don’t have true liabilities on a team like that).

I’m good with this, happy in fact. There’s not too many players in the league that you can throw into any of four lines without having to sacrifice very much … all while making only one million dollars.

given that Buf did nothing there lately – Kop may have been an upgrade, but I still don’t think the best upgrade

Somebody in the Minnesota press said that he’d be a great fit for the Wild’s top line.

He’s played his ass off, pure and simple. I absolutely disagreed with Q’s sitting him in the playoffs. I don’t care how much energy Burish brings (and he does) And Kop’s been 10x better than Brouwer. Kop started kicking ass after the olympics I believe. Look at the last 2 minutes of the semifinal game slovaks v canada. Hossa and Kop playing together a lot in this game as I recall. They kept the puck in the offensive zone for at least the final 90 seconds of the game to almost tie it up. It was one of the most brilliant displays of keep-away I’ve ever seen in a hockey game. Don’t break up the Slovaks.